


mystery flowers - a seblos oneshot <3

by musicaltheatrewannabe



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: M/M, Short Circuiting Carlos, theatre husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22117618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicaltheatrewannabe/pseuds/musicaltheatrewannabe
Summary: in which the opening night flowers are from seb for carlos but he forgets to address them and is then all flustered when he tells him the truth after the show!
Relationships: Carlos/Seb Matthew-Smith
Comments: 13
Kudos: 80





	mystery flowers - a seblos oneshot <3

“We’ve got mystery flowers people!” Carlos shouted, carrying in an enormous bouquet of flowers and drawing everyone’s attention. Seb put down his brush, hoping his makeup would make his actual blush less obvious, but the entire cast and crew were looking at the flowers, so he had nothing to worry about. Maybe the size of the bouquet was a little bit overkill, but once he had started adding flowers he couldn’t stop. He had wanted to give Carlos an opening night gift to show his appreciation for all of his hard work on the show throughout the semester, and when he had found that basket abandoned in the barn, it had all come together. He picked the flowers from his backyard discreetly, but when his mom saw what he was doing and started yelling at him, the damage had already been done. It had still been worth it, though, to see the smile on Carlos’ face as he carried in the giant bouquet.

Seb was about to go up to Carlos and talk to him alone when he processed one of his words and Big Red articulated his next thought: “why mystery?”

Carlos shrugged and said, “there was no card, so I’m guessing it’s dealer’s choice, but, if I had to bet, I’d say it’s for our leading lady!” He pointed at Nini who returned a shy smile, and everyone returned to their state of pre-show chaos.

Seb knit his brow in confusion. Why did Carlos think the flowers were for Nini? He had very clearly written Carlos’ name (accompanied by little hearts) on a small piece of card and-

Seb stood up suddenly, earning a concerned look from Kourtney. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Seb stammered, his eyes darting around the room for his coat, “I just left something in my coat, I think.” Kourtney shrugged and continued doing her own makeup as Seb made a beeline for the corner of the room with the pile of jackets.

Once he found his corduroy jacket, his hands fidgeted frantically with the button on the right top pocket. He stuck his hand inside. Nothing. He opened the pocket on the other side and when he reached in he did feel the crisp edges of the card. Seb rolled his eyes at himself. Of course he had forgotten to actually put the card in the bouquet. He glanced around the room to make sure no one had caught onto what he was doing, but everyone was preoccupied with one last-minute emergency or another, including Carlos. He made his way back to the makeup tables and decided he would have to tell him about the flowers after the show.

.

As the cast walked off stage from the curtain call, bursting with energy, they all cheered and yelled incoherently. They had ushered Miss Jenn and Carlos onstage after all of the cast bows, and Seb had beamed with pride as the other boy grinned and bowed for the cheering audience. Their eyes met across the stage and when Seb caught up to Carlos in the wings the other boy took his hand.

“You were so good! Absolutely stole the show,” Carlos said, swinging their arms as they followed the rest of the cast backstage. “I told you you had nothing to worry about,” he squeezed Seb’s hand, earning a smile from the blonde boy. Their eye contact lingered for a few moments before Nini ran up to them and hugged them both.

“Seb!!! You were so incredible, it was so hard to hate you!” she gushed, and the boys laughed. “Oh my God, and Carlos,” she added, “might I just say, the best portrayal of Chad Danforth I’ve ever seen.”

“I second that!” Seb giggled.

“Let’s never talk about that again,” Carlos groaned. “But you? Nini Salazar-Roberts, you blew me away!”

Nini grinned, keeping her arms around them on either side. “Thanks! You know, knowing that the dean was here, it actually motivated me… Speaking of, I should probably go back out there and introduce myself!”

“Yes, go go go!” Seb pushed her back towards the stage and Carlos gave an encouraging thumbs-up. “I’m gonna go and quickly change out of these pants, they just don’t breathe at all,” Seb gave Carlos a knowing glance.

“Ok,” Carlos chuckled and raised his eyebrows as Seb rushed off to get his clothes, before turning to find Gina.

Once everything had quieted down a bit and most of the cast had filtered out, Seb, with the only trace of his Sharpay costume now the glitter in his hair, spotted Carlos packing up his binder in the corner of the room. He took a deep breath as his hand wrapped around the card in his pocket. Carlos glanced up and met Seb’s eyes with a smile. “What are you still doing in here? I thought everyone had already gone to Ashlyn’s.”

Seb fidgeted with his hands and looked down as he walked towards the other boy. “I was looking for you, actually…” Carlos raised his eyebrows in response, waiting for Seb to go on. “I know we joked about it earlier, but you seriously did such a good job stepping up to play Chad,” Seb said earnestly, as Carlos started shaking his head. “And I mean, as much as all the role-swapping tonight was an absolute mess, we managed to deal with it pretty well!”

“Luckily we had you as the star of the show to hold it all together,” Carlos smiled, swinging his bag over his shoulder.

Seb blushed, muttering a shy “thanks,” before realizing that he needed to say something now if he was going to. “Hey, um, before we go,” he started, Carlos glancing up expectantly, “I found the card that was supposed to go with the flowers.”

Confusion washed over Carlos’ face. “Wait, what do you mean?” he asked, and Seb held out the card in response.

“For you,” Seb said with a shy smile, and Carlos took the card, blushing at the little hearts doodled around his name.

“They’re from you?” Carlos asked, completely dumbfounded. He really had thought they had been for Nini. The possibility of the flowers being for him hadn’t crossed his mind at all, not even for a moment.

Seb nodded, gathering up the courage to respond. As a result, it came out all at once. “Yeah, I picked them on my farm this morning, did the whole arrangement as an opening night gift and even made the card, but because I’m an idiot, I forgot to actually put the card in the bouquet before leaving it in the hallway…” he trailed off with a shrug and a smile.

Carlos was overwhelmed. He still couldn’t believe the flowers were for him, let alone from Seb, the love of his life, or his crush, who was standing here all flustered in front of him. “You picked them yourself?” was all he managed to say, and Seb nodded sheepishly.

“I’m sorry- do you not like them?” Seb looked concerned, “I should’ve just bought a bouquet on the way here-“

“No, no, I love them, Seb!” Carlos reassured the other boy, putting his hands on his shoulders. “They’re beautiful,” he dropped his hands back down and cocked his head to the side. “But why didn’t you say something earlier? When I brought them in?”

“Well, you said that they weren’t addressed to anyone and I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of everyone,” Seb explained. “Especially after everyone thought that they were for Nini - I didn’t want to disappoint her right before going onstage,” he added, and Carlos nodded along.

“Ok, good point,” Carlos replied. “That might have dramatically increased the stress level in the room, and it was already pretty high, mostly thanks to me,” he chuckled.

Seb looked Carlos in the eye. “You know how incredible you are, right?” he asked. Carlos just stared back at him, speechless. “I didn’t just bring you flowers because I- I like you,” Seb blushed, and Carlos did as well upon hearing those words, “I brought them because you deserve them. This whole year you’ve been working so hard to bring this show to life, basically singlehandedly, when Miss Jenn was going through it, and no one has truly acknowledged that.” Carlos stared in awe at the boy in front of him. “I just wanted to show you how much I appreciate you, Carlos, for everything, but especially for giving me what I’ve always wanted by helping me become Sharpay.” Seb’s heart was pounding in his chest, and he couldn’t believe he had said all of that, but he was glad to have gotten it all out.

Carlos took a step closer to brush the few stray hairs that were hanging down onto Seb’s forehead out of the way, resting his arms around his shoulders, and the blonde boy thought he would combust right then and there. “Thank you,” Carlos said, his voice softer than Seb had ever heard it before. “For the flowers,” he added, smiling and shaking his head in disbelief, “and for everything that you just said.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Seb smiled, glancing from Carlos’ eyes down to his lips and back, “it’s all true.”

Seb took another step forward and they both leaned in, their eyes fluttering shut moments before their lips connected. Carlos tightened his arms around Seb’s neck and Seb wrapped one arm around Carlos’ back, gently pulling him closer. The kiss was soft and careful but they pulled away after a few moments because they both found themselves smiling too much. Seb giggled and couldn’t help but give Carlos a quick peck right after they pulled apart, making the other boy blush even more. “Oh my God, you’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Carlos said, keeping his arms around Seb’s neck and ruffling his hairspray-hardened hair with one hand. Some glitter fell into his face and Seb scrunched up his nose and eyes but still couldn’t stop smiling.

“Stop, the glitter’s gonna get everywhere!” Seb laughed, and Carlos pulled his arms back but shrugged.

“Isn’t that the point?” he asked, reaching for Seb’s hand and intertwining their fingers. Seb shot back a giddy smile and squeezed Carlos’ hand.

A thought suddenly dawned on Seb and he pulled Carlos toward the door. “We should really get going if we wanna make it to Ash’s in time for the cake!”

“Cake? No one ever told me about cake!” Carlos replied with just as much urgency. “But will you at least help me carry the flowers to the car, since it’s your fault that they’re so big?”

Seb laughed and picked up one side of the basket. “Of course,” he said, and they carried the bouquet out into the East High parking lot together with dumb grins plastered across their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> shout out to the hsmtmts discord! love you guys:)


End file.
